Meditate | How It's Been

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“The Holy Supper has three things within it: the Lord, his divine goodness [the flesh and bread], and his divine truth [the blood and wine]” (True Christianity 711). “From these come the three grand faculties within our inner self: the soul or mind as a whole, the will, and the intellect. These three are vessels for receiving the three universal qualities mentioned just above…The reason for this is that we have been created to be an image and likeness of God, so that we can be in the Lord and the Lord can be in us” (True Christianity 712).

“Both [the Lord’s] glorified humanity and his divinity, which was the source of his humanity, are present in [the Holy Supper]” (True Christianity 716). “Where the Lord is fully present, his redemption is also fully present. In his humanity he is the Redeemer, therefore he is redemption itself…Being redeemed means being liberated from hell, forming a partnership with the Lord, and being saved. Moved as he is by his divine love, he would prefer to give us all of these gifts [at once]. Instead we are given them in accordance with our own receptivity: however receptive we are, that is how far the process of redemption takes us” (True Christianity 717).

 “The Lord is love itself and wisdom itself; therefore we are endowed with an endless capacity for uniting ourselves to the Lord and the Lord to ourselves. Nevertheless, because we are finite, his actual divinity cannot become an integral part of us; it can only make contact with us and affect us…We are not life itself the way the Lord was, even in his humanity (John 5:26); we are vessels for receiving life” (True Christianity 718).

The part of these passages I felt drawn to focus on the most in my meditation was the point about how “being redeemed means being liberated from hell, forming a partnership with the Lord, and being saved.” The first and last parts are passive—we are liberated, we are saved. The middle is active—we form a partnership with the Lord. I see a reflection of this point in the way my life has been recently. Over the past six to eight weeks I was going through an incredibly arduous time and felt beaten down by life. Through it though, I felt a desire to stay connected with the Lord, to not give up and not give in to quitting taking any action towards the opportunities for doing good in my daily life, such as meeting my children’s needs, being kind—or at least restraining my negativity—toward my neighbors, and trying to think of others outside myself. My practice of and desire to do these good things were being attacked by the draining circumstances of my situation—exhaustion, relative isolation, etc. Life felt intense, hard, and scary. In thinking about this phase with respect to the passages quoted, it rings true for me that I couldn’t liberate myself from hell or save myself. There was nothing I could do to change my circumstances: if I don’t get enough sleep and I have to act as a single parent for several days in succession, my lower self is going to be stirred up. But I can form a partnership with the Lord and I see how that was my saving grace.

Forming a partnership meant remembering the Lord, bringing the Lord to mind during my day, even if the action was totally deficient in feeling; and from a place of knowing what the right action was to take, what good there was to be done, just doing it, just putting one foot in front of the other, despite the mind chatter and loud complaining of my lower self (“This isn’t fair! Life sucks! Will it ever change? What’s the point?”).

Along with the passages I read from True Christianity for my meditation, I read Psalm 31, but am not quoting it here. It’s one of those juicy psalms in which the speaker is feeling extremely beaten down by life and yet makes the choice to acknowledge the Lord, put his trust in him, and even praise the Lord’s goodness and “marvelous kindness” (Psalm 31: 21). I think this shows the process of redemption by how we form a partnership with the Lord: even in the midst of serious strife, do the mind-bending work of simultaneously acknowledging fully the pain of our circumstances while also acknowledging the Lord and admitting, from a place of trust, the blessings that the Lord is working through our experience; be present to the real sense of futility in it all while also rejoicing in the blessings the Lord is making possible through the difficult phase we are going through. I found, though I can’t explain how, that through this practice (note though, it didn’t feel like ‘practice,’ just like survival) I somehow was sustained in my resolve and ability to do the simple good that love desires. And for that, I am so thankful.     

*Extra Tidbit: In the Gospel of Luke, it is Psalm 31 that the Lord references just before he dies when he says, “Father, ‘into your hands I commit my spirit’” (23: 46). In Psalm 31: 5 it reads, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth.” I think we are given insight into the Lord’s experience when he quotes this psalm in particular when on the cross. In that unimaginably intense experience, the Lord is doing the practice of forming a partnership, although in his case, it is glorification—uniting his humanity and divinity. Thick in pain and strife, by quoting Psalm 31, I see the Lord making the remarkable choice to trust and acknowledge the eternal blessings that are being prepared and made possible through his experience. Noticing this deepens my sense of the Lord’s understanding, compassion, and support when I’m going through the trials of life.        

Chelsea Rose Odhner

Chelsea is overjoyed that her husband is no longer a graduate student finishing his thesis, but a freshly minted PhD. In addition to mothering her two young children round the clock, she is an assistant editor for New Church Connection and an editor and writer for New Church Perspective.